Hello friends
My wife(Edie) was diagnosed with LBD in October of 2005.
She has been taking insulin for her diabetes for 33 years.
We have always had trouble controlling blood sugar levels and continue to do so.

I am wondering if anybody else is dealing with the two problems at once and if you may have any suggestions.I really think there is a connection between LBD and diabetes but am aware of some neurologists saying that there is no commonality.What do you folks think?
Thanks for your time and your forum.
Jerry(Husband of Edie for 35 years)

Thu Apr 12, 2007 8:55 pm

EricSEA

Joined: Mon Feb 05, 2007 3:43 amPosts: 215Location: Seattle, WA

Changes in glucose metabolism in the brain are associated with various forms of dementia; in addition, there's a suspected link between IM insulin and beta-amyloid aggregation, as in Alzeheimer's Disease. It's admittedly somewhat cutting-edge in neurology, but it's new enough that it might not have made it's way out into community practice yet.

In addition, the atypical antipsychotics are suspected to make glucose control somewhat trickier.

Above all, the brain runs on glucose. Tight glucose control is associated with better outcomes across the board, even in the oldest patients.

Eric

_________________Cal is not the real name of a real 84 year old with DLB. I don't speak for LBDA, nor do I have clever initials behind my name, so information is provided without warranty. Caveat everybody. I blog at http://PragmaticCaregiver.blogspot.com

In particular I wonder how things tie together. For example my understanding is increased sugar consumption over time can depress dopamine levels. PD is correlated with low endogenous dopamine. Many PD / LBD patiens report RLS. There are lots of anecdotes online of links between RLS and sugar. Like this: http://therestlesslegsblog.wordpress.com/

So does all this stuff tie together or not? Am I just parroting what all the smart people know?

Tue Jan 01, 2013 12:53 am

irene selak

Joined: Sat Jan 03, 2009 2:59 pmPosts: 1978

Re: Diabetes and LBD

Just want to give a quick welcome to the LBDA forums, I am sorry I don't have the answer for your question but I am sure someone will come along and know more than I do on it too , I suggest you give brief intro in the welcome area it often elerts people to new members !

Good Luck !

_________________Irene Selak

Tue Jan 01, 2013 10:57 am

labeckett

Joined: Thu Apr 21, 2011 9:07 pmPosts: 248

Re: Diabetes and LBD

There's pretty strong evidence that diabetes increases the risk for Parkinson's. A study in Finland, where they have universal healthcare and excellent medical records that make such population-based research easier, found about a two-fold increase in the risk of developing Parkinson's for people with Type II diabetes during an 18-year follow-up period, even after taking into account factors like age, sex, and other risk factors. (They also found in earlier work that obesity was associated with higher risk.) The working theory is that metabolic stress contributes to the development of the brain damage. Inflammatory processes may contribute, too. Reference: Hu et al, Diabetes Care April 2007, 842-847. One would guess that if the risk of PD goes up, so would related pathologies, such as LBD. One of the big challenges in doing such studies with LBD is that the diagnosis is sometimes pretty tenuous without postmortem to confirm.

Our group's work is among those suggesting that there is an inflammatory component to the development of AD. But the evidence so far is mostly indirect, a sort of chain of logic that says hey, higher inflammatory markers and higher inflammatory risk factors are associated with white matter hyperintensities, and higher WMH are associated with more atrophy of the hippocampus, and hippocampal atrophy is characteristic of AD, and so on.

On the whole, though, it can't hurt to try to reduce your risk factors for Type II diabetes if you don't have it, and to keep it well controlled if you do...

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